"Krone" commentary

Battle won, but war lost?

Commentary on the major issues affecting Austria: Klaus Herrmann, Managing Editor-in-Chief

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/stock.adobe.com)

We should try it with the blue party - this call came loudest from the black business community during the ÖVP-SPÖ-NEOS negotiations. Now that the negotiations between the blue and black parties have been going on for more than a month without agreement, it was Chamber of Commerce President Harald Mahrer, of all people, who went on the offensive on Tuesday and took full aim at negotiating partner Herbert Kickl via "Krone", whom he sees as being in a power frenzy - and not fit for government.

Mahrer has expressed what broad circles in the People's Party have long felt: They would have agreed with the Freedom Party long ago - if it weren't for Kickl. Instead of confidence-building measures, new conditions that are impossible for a partner to fulfill. The supposed closeness between the blue and black programs? In reality, the distance seems to be growing every day.

Both sides have entrenched themselves in their trenches - if you will permit the military diction - and are firing at the opponent who was actually supposed to become a partner.

The ÖVP, already wounded after the election defeat and the failed negotiations on the Zuckerl coalition, is afraid of any movement: If it hands itself over to the FPÖ, it fears becoming a hostage of Kickl. If it runs in the other direction, the next minefield awaits.

But Kickl must also be careful: He wouldn't be the first to have won a battle but lost the war.